Problem

Every year in the United States, billions of dollars are lost due to flooding or severe storms. The damage to these crops puts heavy financial burdens on the farmers and consumers, potentially leading to food shortages in very extreme cases.

Biology's Solution

Fungus-growing ants are a species of ant that cannot digest leaves. They create hanging gardens to generate food by feeding a fungus they produce collected biological material. Higher species of ant have domesticated their fungal crop to the point the fungus cannot live without them. The

Ants do hang their

gardens to protect

against flood damage

and harmful microbes.

The ants not only care for these farms by creating the fungus and gathering biological material to grow but also care for them the way a human farmer would. Specialized ants weed the crops and lick them to remove any harmful pathogens. They also keep their crops at an optimal humidity, allowing the fungus to absorb water.

Video from Mr. D!!

Our Solution

We plan to create a hanging garden, replicating that of the fungus-growing ants. Our design will have a hanging layer that is well protected against flooding and pests as well as a ground-level layer to optimise space management

Original Ideas

Enzo

Jack

Final Sketch

Initial Prototype

Water Storage

Frame

Hanging Plantation

Lower Plantation

Incorporating Mid-Review Feedback

The main feedback we received was focused on the method we used to move the water from the top layer to the bottom. We decided to focus mainly on having the water percolate through the top layer and be filtered as opposed to using overflow, which could over-hydrate the plants and cause loss of soil. We also incorporated feedback to automate the pump process.

Incorporating Chat GPT Feedback

The main piece of feedback we chose to incorporate was focused on a filtration system for the water that flowed down to prevent dirty water or large chunks of soil from falling though. However, none of the feedback we received from Chat GPT worked well for our design. So we used large coffee filter paper from the CCI.

Challenges

Due to the holes in the base and the weak nature of the coffee filter paper, dirt fell through the bottom. To stop this we added a layer of sticks to form tights gaps. Supporting the filter and allowing water to flow freely, but supporting the dirt and preventing it from collapsing

Challenge with coding

We initially intended to use a pump that would turn on automatically when the soil was dry. However, there was no pump that could be coded and was strong enough for what we needed. We settled on using a stronger pump and a system of lights that alerted you when the soil was dry.

Iterations

Iterations

Iterations

Iterations

This was supposed to be a moisture sensor but accidently received a temperature sensor. Led to a lot of coding errors and a headache.

Labelled image Arduino

Lights will light up depending on moisture level. 4 is very wet, 0 is very dry.

Arduino

Moisture Sensor

Breadboard

const int sensorPin = A0; const int ledPins[4] = {2, 4, 6, 8}; // Updated LED pin numbers void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) { pinMode(ledPins[i], OUTPUT); } } void loop() { int moisture = analogRead(sensorPin); Serial.print("Moisture Level: "); Serial.println(moisture); int ledCount = map(moisture, 400, 750, 0, 4); // Adjust range based on sensor readings ledCount = constrain(ledCount, 0, 4); // Ensure value stays between 0 and 4 for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) { if (i < ledCount) { digitalWrite(ledPins[i], HIGH); } else { digitalWrite(ledPins[i], LOW); } } delay(1000); }

Labelled Final imaged

Arduino Holder

Hanging Garden

Lower Garden

Water Holder

Tube for water

Thank You!!